1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid scintillation counting system and, more specifically, to a guard efficiency compensation system and method for a scintillation counting system.
2. Background Information
Liquid scintillation counting systems are utilized to count radiation events in a sample being tested. Such systems often utilize a lead shield to block or inhibit background radiation, from the environment, which could cause unwanted noise events to be included when counting events in the sample. Typically, the lead shield is thickest at the top of the liquid scintillation counting system where cosmic ray flux is most intense. However, as more lead is added, the overall system becomes heavy and cumbersome. In addition to the lead shield, a guard subsystem may be utilized to detect and account for background radiation that was not inhibited by the shield. Radiation events coincidently detected by the sample counting system and the guard subsystem are classified as background radiation that should not be included in the count of events in the sample. However, due to the non-ideal performance of the guard subsystem, not all background noise events are coincidently detected, and thus unwanted background noise events may still be inadvertently included in the count of events in the sample.